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SHAMOKIN COAL COMPANY. 









A 


BRIEF SKETCH 


OF THE 


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PECULIAR ADVANTAGES OF THE 


SHAMOKIN COAL COMPANY, 




SITUATE IN NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY, STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA, 


CAPITAL 300,000 DOLLARS, 


WITH THE PRIVILEGE OF HOLDING 3,000 ACRES OF LAND IN THE 


COUNTIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND AND COLUMBIA, 


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£ * ^ . 


Incorporated by the Legislature of Pennsylvania , June 1 6th, 1836. 

S3 ■ s/ OF COhi'r ^ 

As • /&** a \: 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PRINTED BY BROWN, BICKING & GUILBERT, NO. 50 NORTH FOURTH STREET. 


1840. 








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DIRECTORS OF THE SHAMOKIN COAL COMPANY 


FOR 1840. 

Samuel R. Wood, Philadelphia, 
John C. Boyd, near Danville, 
James Hepbun, Northumberland, 
William Boyd, Havre-de-Grace, 
V. B. Palmer, Baltimore. 
























































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A BRIEF SKETCH, &c. 


The lands of the Shamokin Coal Company are 
situate in Coal Township, Northumberland County, 
Pennsylvania, on the line of the Pottsville and Dan¬ 
ville Rail Road, nineteen miles from the Sunbury 
basin, on the Pennsylvania Canal. This road is fin¬ 
ished, about one mile beyond where the mines are 
now worked, two locomotives are running on it, with 
all the necessary cars to transport the coal, &c., from 
the mines to the canal; one locomotive conveys 100 
tons of coal at a load, it being all down grade, and 
makes two trips a day, returning with the empty 
cars. 

The tract of land now worked is peculiarly situ¬ 
ated, affording every facility, for carrying on the 
mining operations with the least possible expense. 
By the use of a lateral track along side the main 
road, the cars, without the use of horse power, are 
brought immediately under the shutes, at the mouth 
of the drifts, and the coal (after passing over screens 
so arranged as to separate it into different sizes) is 
deposited in the cars. At the shutes now erected, 
eight wagons carrying three tons and a half each 



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can be loaded in a few minutes. When loaded, one 
man can remove them (it being down grade) to that 
part of the road, at which the engine is attached. 

At Sunbury the wharf of the Company is one hun¬ 
dred and sixty-five feet in length and about forty 
feet in width, patent Scale, and all the necessary 
Machinery, to load into boats, with three hands, two 
hundred tons of coal per day. 

When we take into view, the large quantity of coal 
necessarily wanted at Baltimore, Washington, and 
other Southern towns, which can be supplied, with 
greater facility, from this region, than any other, and 
the increasing demand at the eastern ports, now sup¬ 
plied by the other coal regions of Pennsylvania, it 
will be difficult to assign limits to such demands. 
The estimated quantity necessary to supply the 
thickly populated country, along the different branches 
of the Susquehanna, embracing the Counties of Nor¬ 
thumberland, Union, Columbia, Juniatta, Perry, Dau¬ 
phin, York, Lancaster, and part of Chester, and the 
numerous and flourishing villages along the banks of 
the river, comprising in the aggregate, more inhabi¬ 
tants, than the City of Philadelphia; and when we also 
remember, that the engines on the Columbia and Phila¬ 
delphia Rail Road, are to use this fuel, and no doubt 
the Columbia, York and Baltimore Rail Road Co. will 
do the same, can we for a moment doubt, the advan¬ 
tages of this Company as successful competitors, for the 
increasing coal trade. Nor is this all, the recently dis¬ 
covered mode, of smelting and manufacturing iron, with 


anthracite coal, will in a short time, produce a greater 
consumption, of that article, than all other means 
united. Two furnaces on the improved plan, blown 
with one engine, yielding each eighty tons of metal 
per week, with a rolling mill, calculated to manufac¬ 
ture one hundred tons of bar iron per week, will 
require at the rate of six tons of coal for every ton 
of iron, say five thousand tons of manufactured iron, 
will require thirty thousand tons of coal. There are 
now two establishments of this kind, being built at 
Danville, which will require their supply of coal from 
the Shamokin mines. 

There is on the Company’s tract of land, which ad¬ 
joins the town of Shamokin, twelve veins of coal, run¬ 
ning principally a distance of three hundred and 
twenty rods through the tract, varying in thickness 
from five feet up to sixty, and in elevation from two 
hundred to six hundred feet above the water level. 
The railroad cuts the veins at right angles, affording 
the greatest possible facility, for working the mines. 
The coal is of a very superior quality, principally 
white and grey ash, and can be delivered at Sunbury 
at $1 50 per ton; which includes every expense for 
mining, toll and freight on the rail road, weighing, 
&c.; and at Havre-de-Grace at $3 50. 

The peculiar advantages of this company in the 
location of their lands, their proximity to the rail road, 
renders the use of horse power about the mines en¬ 
tirely unnecessary. The Danville and Pottsville 
Rail Road Company find all the cars in which the 


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coal is carried, engines, &c., &c., and transmit the coal 
on the road for three cents per ton per mile, including 
every expense. The Pennsylvania and Tide Water 
Canals, are of sufficient capacity to use boats car¬ 
rying each ninety or a hundred tons. Four of the 
mines are now open and may be worked during the 
coming year to great advantage. The price now 
paid by contract for mining and delivery in the wa¬ 
gons on the road is fifty-six cents per ton. 

The distance from Sunbury to Havre-de-Grace on 
the Chesapeake Bay, by canal, is one hundred and 
twenty-six miles, lockage four hundred and eighteen 
feet, overcome by fifty-two locks. The toll on the 
Pennsylvania Canal is half of a cent per ton of two 
thousand pounds, per mile. On the Susquehanna and 
Tide Water Canal the same. The cost of freight 
from Sunbury to Havre-de-Grace is $1 25 per ton, 
toll sixty-three cents per nett ton, total $1 88. 

The annexed letter from the agent of Mr. J. C. 
Boyd, from whom the property was purchased; 
answering several enquiries, therein stated, will fully 
convince any person, conversant with the coal busi¬ 
ness, of the advantageous location of these mines for 
carrying on an extensive and profitable operation; 
every thing is in readiness to convey to market du¬ 
ring the coming season, if the company so desire, fifty 
thousand tons of coal. 

It is confidently believed that no coal company in 
the State, have in so eminent a degree the advan¬ 
tages possessed by the Shamokin Coal Company. 


LETTER. 


BoycVs Mines, October 18 , 1839 . 

John C. Boyd, Esq. 

Sir: 

Your letter of the 8th inst. is 
duly at hand and contents noticed, and in answer to 
your enquiries in relation to your coal mines, from the 
practical knowledge I have of them, I have no hesi¬ 
tation in answering you as follows:— 

First you ask what number of tons of coal I could 
take out of the mines now working during the next 
season? I have no hesitation in saying that I could 
take 25,000 tons from the two veins I am now 
working, say No. 1 & 2, these veins are in very good 
order, 4J & 5J feet thick of solid coal, these veins 
run 6,860 feet through your lands and are 300 feet 
high above water level, and contain 762,222 cubic 
yards of coal, or as many tons; as we estimate a cubic 
yard of coal a ton. 

In your second enquiry you ask from appearances 
of the drifts No. 3 & 4 what quantity of coal could be 
taken out of them next season ? In answer to this en- 

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quiry I can inform you that 18,000 tons may very 
readily be taken out of these two veins during the 
next season, these veins are as good as No. 1 & 2 but 
some outside improvement will want to be made in 
the early part of the season which will cause some 
delay. 

In your third enquiry you ask if it would be advisa¬ 
ble to open the sixty feet vein next season on your 
land ? In answer, I would say not, for you have a suffi¬ 
cient number of veins open, to very readily, get out, 
50,000 tons of coal during the next season, and to 
open veins when not wanted is only expensive. I 
have fully examined the sixty feet vein, with shafts, 
and find the vein very good, and find the vein to run 
through your land a distance of 6,8G0 feet, sixty feet 
thick and 218 feet high above water level, and con¬ 
tains 3,048,888 cubic yards, or as many tons of coal. 

In your fourth enquiry you ask if it would be ne¬ 
cessary to open the seven feet vein next season ? I 
would say not, unless you wish to get out more than 
50,000 tons of coal. 

In your fifth enquiry you ask, what probable quan¬ 
tity of coal, could be taken from the red ash or flat 
vein during the next season ? In answer to this enquiry 
I can inform you that I can get 10,000 tons from that 
vein next season, the vein is in very good order, 6 
feet thick, solid coal, and has 2,400 feet to run through 
your lands, is 150 feet high above water level and 
contains 82,000 cubic yards or tons of coal. 


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In your sixth enquiry you ask what number of dwel¬ 
ling or miners’ houses there are on your land ? In an¬ 
swer I inform you that you have eleven double houses, 
any of them large enough to accommodate two fami¬ 
lies, and some of them large enough to accommodate a 
number of boarders. Your mines have a decided advan¬ 
tage over your neighbours’, being located so near the 
town of Shamokin, many of the workmen can live in 
the town. I would say if you built nine more miners’ 
houses you would have houses enough to accommo¬ 
date men to take out 50,000 tons a year. 

In your seventh enquiry you ask how are your coal 
lands timbered, will I have a sufficiency of prop tim¬ 
ber to do a large business ? In answer I can inform 
you that the land is well timbered, and I have no 
hesitation in saying that you have prop timber for 
twenty years to come. 

In your eighth enquiry you ask in what condition 
your two saw mills are ? In answer I can inform you 
that they are in very good condition and when they 
have plenty of water, which has not failed this year, 
they are capable of cutting 80,000 feet a month. 

In your ninth enquiry you ask what rent you should 
ask for coal leave, or the coal in the ground ? In an¬ 
swer to this enquiry I assure you that forty cents a 
ton is a low rent, and would recommend to you to 
work the mines yourself, in preference to forty cents 
a ton coal leave. 

In your tenth enquiry you ask me if I could take 


12 


•out 50,000 tons coal during the coming season ? In 
answer to this enquiry I have no hesitation in saying 
that I can very readily get out 50,000 tons during the 
coming season and more should you want it. 

In your eleventh enquiry you ask what is the cost 
of coal at Sunbury, and what is the cost of it at 
Havre-de-Grace ? In answer I inform you that the 
cost of coal delivered on board of boats at Sunbury 
is $1 42 per ton and at Havre-de-Grace $3 42 per 
ton. 

In your twelfth enquiry you ask if Mr. Bird has 
got the wharf, shutes and screens completed at Sun¬ 
bury ? In answer I can inform you that they are 
completed, he has made a good job of it, the screens 
are very good, well arranged, and the wharf is large 
enough to ship 70,000 tons over in a season. 

Having answered your enquiries I here conclude 
by hoping I shall see you soon in person, when I will 
be more full. 

Yours very respectfully, 

David Nice, Superintendent, 

J. C. BOYD’S Mines. 


.The following letter has been received since the foregoing- was printed. 

Philadelphia, January \lth, 1840. 

Dear Sir : 

I have received your letter, and am pleased to furnish you 
any information in my power in relation to the manufacture of Iron, 
from Anthracite Coal. 

It is in contemplation to erect forthwith, upon the property which 
I have purchased at Danville, three Furnaces and a Rolling Mill of 
the largest capacity, and to convert the present Furnace to the use 
of Anthracite Coal. This establishment, when in full operation, 
will consume from sixty to ninety thousand tons of Anthracite Coal, 
and manufacture from ten 1o fifteen thousand tons of Pig and Bar 
Iron. The erection of such an establishment will necessarily bring 
around us the manufacturers of Iron, in its higher stages —hard¬ 
ware, cutlery, &c.,—Machine and Engine Shops, all of which must 
consume largely of the mineral coal. 

With respect, &c, 

THO. CHAMBERS. 


Jos. Boyd, Esq. 









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